[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 134 (Wednesday, September 7, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S5366]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO KEN GORMLEY

 Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, today I wish to honor the 13th 
president of Duquesne University, Ken Gormley, a renowned lawyer, 
scholar, teacher, and author. A native western Pennsylvanian, Ken has 
dedicated his life to public service and education. He was sworn in as 
president of Duquesne University on July 1, 2016, after serving as 
interim dean and dean of Duquesne's School of Law from 2008 until 2015. 
The inauguration of Duquesne University's 13th dean, and just its third 
lay dean, highlights the impact this 138-year-old institution has made 
on the city of Pittsburgh and its students, displaying a constant and 
deep commitment to Spiritan values and academic rigor. Founded in 1878 
by the Congregation of the Holy Spirit to educate the children of 
immigrant steel mill workers, Duquesne now enrolls nearly 10,000 
students from throughout the country and the world.
  Ken first began his tenure at Duquesne in 1994 after a career in 
private practice and teaching at the University of Pittsburgh School of 
Law, where he founded a successful legal writing program for minority 
students and women returning to professional school after raising their 
children. Under his leadership as dean of Duquesne's School of Law, the 
institution ascended to the top tier of law schools and has become 
nationally ranked. Ken's commitment to public service is deeply rooted 
in western Pennsylvania. From 1998--2001, he served as mayor of Forest 
Hills, PA, where he helped to establish a community development 
corporation to focus on the borough's business corridor. He has also 
served as the president of the Allegheny County Bar Association, where 
he helped establish the Gender Equality Institute to work to advance 
women in the legal profession.
  Ken Gormley earned his bachelor's degree from the University of 
Pittsburgh and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He quickly earned a 
reputation as a leading constitutional scholar, writing for such 
esteemed publications as the Stanford Law Review, the Rutgers Law 
Journal, the Pennsylvania Lawyer, and Politico. He is an expert on the 
U.S. Supreme Court and has testified before the Pennsylvania Senate 
Judiciary Committee and here in the U.S. Senate. Ken is also an 
accomplished author, having penned the biography of Archibald Cox, one 
of the great constitutional lawyers of the 20th century, for whom he 
served as a teaching assistant at Harvard. The book was awarded the 
1999 Bruce K. Gould Book Award for outstanding publication relating to 
the law and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Ken's most recent book, 
``The Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History,'' draws upon 
the Nation's top experts on the American Presidency and the U.S. 
Constitution to tell the incredibly important story of how each 
President has confronted and shaped the Constitution.
  I am proud to rise today to honor Dean Ken Gormley and to recognize 
his wife, Laura, and their children Carolyn, Luke, Rebecca, and 
Madeleine. I thank Ken for his decades of service to Pennsylvania and 
this Nation and wish him luck for his significant work to come on 
behalf of Duquesne University.

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